But from this perch, there’s no doubt and no room for dispute that he was a diligent, open-minded leader of the City Plan Commission as it considered many a proposal, idea, suggestion for redrawing the ground rules for 850-plus acres of north Oak Cliff.

Council member Scott Griggs represents the Gateway area. And as Griggs’ appointee, Anglin was tasked with the director’s role, according to commission custom, precedence, etc.

Drawing on proposals from the city planning staff and the Gateway volunteer task force, plus some ideas of his own, Anglin offered up a zoning map and revisions to a draft ordinance that served as starting points for discussions and more than 20 votes during an almost four-hour meeting Thursday.

After all was said and done, the commission adopted a rezoning plan that now goes to the City Council for a final decision. Details to come.

And Anglin sent me this assessment and perspective:

Today’s action by the planning commission is just one more step in a process that has been going on for a number of years now. The commission’s vote is an expression of its independent opinion on how the rezoning of the Gateway should take place, but it is not, per se, an act of rezoning. The case now goes to our elected representatives on City Council who have the responsibility and the authority to implement whatever rezoning is to take place. City Council is not bound by our vote on the commission, but often finds the commission’s collective opinion on a zoning matter helpful in reaching their own conclusions as to the right result.

The opinions expressed by the official Gateway steering committee and the many neighbors and neighborhood groups involved and affected cover a wide spectrum of viewpoints on what should happen over the next 30 or 40 years in this sector of North Oak Cliff … from highly conservative to highly progressive. I think the CPC’s decision today reflects a good balance between the two ends of that spectrum, as I expected it would. We all want what’s best for North Oak Cliff . . . we just don’t always agree on the details of what that should be. That is the tough task of a planning commission: to get into the details and come up with a recommendation to be considered, perhaps in early 2015, by City Council.

This stretch of Jefferson Boulevard is among 179 acres of property included in a proposed rezoning.

Decisions are drawing ever-nigh on the rezonings of more than 1,000 prime Oak Cliff acres.

The City Plan Commission has scheduled a public hearing this Thursday afternoon on proposed land-use changes to the Jefferson Area Special Purpose District. City Council consideration is tentatively set for Aug. 13.

The 176-acre target area is generally bounded by Beckley Avenue and alleys south of 12th Street, west of Polk Street and north of Sunset Avenue — with Jefferson Boulevard running through its core.

The rezoning is focusing on an easing of parking restrictions and a changing of building uses allowed in some areas, among other measures.

For example, boutique hotels, live-work spaces and sales of alcoholic beverages would be allowed along Jefferson for a change, while new day-care centers, pawn shops and taxidermists wouldn’t be allowed in the future. Any rezoning wouldn’t force businesses to move. Below see some nuts and bolts presented to the plan commission earlier this month.

The latest schedule for the 850-acre Oak Cliff Gateway rezoning calls for plan commission briefings July 10 and 24 (this session might include public comment, we’re told) and a public hearing and possible action by the commission on Aug. 7. Then it’s on to the council Sept. 10. Subject to change.

If approved the Gateway rezoning would clear the way for dramatic changes in areas bounded roughly by Zang, Beckley, I-30. the Trinity River levee, I-35, Marsalis and Eighth Street.

Zang at Beckley is among the major intersections in the Oak Cliff Gateway rezoning case.

In Oak Cliff zoning news:

The City Plan Commission will receive a staff briefing Thursday on the proposed rezoning of 176 acres along and near Jefferson Boulevard.

It’s a milestone of sorts, with the matter making it to the commission after months of work by a task force and community meeting. Next will be a commission hearing and then on to the City Council.

For now the redo of the Jefferson Area Special Purpose District, aka Planned Development 316, would ease parking restrictions and change allowed uses of property in the target area. The goal: economic and public benefit. Read more about it right here and here.

Speaking of meetings, meetings and more meetings, after almost 10 years of talk the good old Oak Cliff Gateway area rezoning is moving ever closer to official action.

A draft ordinance covering land-use rules for some 850 acres is now available for public review before decision time. See below.

The target area stretches roughly from a Trinity River levee inland to near the Bishop Arts District, encompassing portions of Zang, Colorado and Jefferson boulevards. See map below.

A mere 85 years ago Humble Oil and Refining Co. opened a filling station near the important intersection of Zang Boulevard and Beckley Avenue.

The pumping of gasoline there ended years ago. And this morning, what was left of the sort of boarded up building was reduced to rubble. The site should be cleared by day’s end, said a member of the demo crew.

Mr. Wazirali isn’t saying much about his plans for the land. But we’ll share what he files with the city for permits, etc.

Talk of trying to preserve the building never gained, as they say, traction. The property didn’t have a protective landmark designation. It lies just outside the Lake Cliff Historic District. So Mr. Wazirali is free to do what he will with the property as long as he follows the city’s rules.

Brenda Garza, an officer of the Lake Cliff Neighborhood Association, stopped in for a look at this morning’s developments. Told that a “convenience store” was supposedly planned for the place, she grimaced a bit and offered some thoughts on the future.

“We would like it to complement the neighborhood and not stick out like a sore thumb,” she said of the building. “It’s about continuity. We want it to blend in.”

“We’re not opposed to a convenience store. A sandwich shop could be a good thing,” Garza said. And whatever arises there should cater to pedestrians and bicycle riders, she said.

As for the property owner, Mr. Wazirali: “We just want him to work with us and listen to us.”

Earlier this week, Mr. Islam said plans for the store include the sale of “fast food” but no alcohol.

“These people are very strong,” he said of Mr. Wazirali and his family/associates, whom he didn’t identify. “They run a good operation. It won’t be a trashy building. It will be nice.

In the continuing search for truth and details about the future at 1030 N. Zang Blvd., we offer these latest morsels.

Kavish Wazirali, owner of the former gas station property at Zang and Beckley, informed us tersely and thusly when asked about its future: “We don’t know yet.”

Mr. Wazirali, an attorney, later expounded in an email: “We have purchased the property and do plan to demolish the existing building, but we are unsure what route we are going to take for the Zang and Beckley property.”

Rafiqul Islam, who secured the demo permit, was a tad more definitive this morning. The site will be cleared soon, he said.

And in time Mr. Wazirali plans to build a “convenience store” where gasoline was first pumped in 1929. Its offerings will include “fast food” but no alcohol, Mr. Islam allowed.

“These people are very strong,” he said of Mr. Wazirali and his family/associates, whom he didn’t identify. “They run a good operation. It won’t be a trashy building. It will be nice.

After years of talk and planning, a rezoning of prime Oak Cliff property has become a priority at City Hall. Tuesday night the project moved another meeting closer to reality.

The area is called the Oak Cliff Gateway. It covers 850 acres from the Trinity River levee inland to near the Bishop Arts District. It encompasses major thoroughfares such as Zang, Colorado and Jefferson boulevards. Some day the Oak Cliff-downtown streetcar line will run its way.

The area was identified in a Trinity River Corridor land-use plan adopted in 2005. Its boundaries were created in 2007 and expanded last year. A Gateway development plan was approved in 2009. A volunteer task force came up with zoning recommendations to complement that vision.

And now city staff is putting together an ordinance “to harmonize everything that’s been done in the past,” council member Scott Griggs told the crowd gathered Tuesday night at Methodist Hospital’s Hitt Auditorium.

The zoning rules will cover the likes of parking and building heights, setbacks and uses. Griggs said Tuesday a draft of the ordinance will be released publicly at least 60 days before the matter goes to the City Plan Commission.

“We want to give everyone plenty of opportunity to review it,” he said.

Reviewers will have differing priorities and opinions. The target area has a mix of zoning and property uses. It includes single-family homes and apartments, industrial and commercial operations, retail shops and offices, along with parks and other open spaces. City-designated historic and conservation districts add rules of their own.

Griggs, who represents the area, talked Tuesday night of his goals for the rezoning.

“We have some great single-family neighborhoods, and we want to help to encourage neighborhood stabilization,” he said.

To encourage economic development, the zoning in some areas needs to be adaptable, he said. “We need to introduce the most choice for the market.”

And to preserve the area’s “great old buildings,” the zoning should allow for adapting and reusing structures.

A presentation by city planner Valerie Miller briefly included Gateway-area “opportunities,” such as bike lane and streetscape improvements and development along the streetcar route. Plans call for extending the line to the Bishop Arts District, and a city goal would take it on south to Jefferson Boulevard.

“We’re looking for more input,” Miller said. “What do you want to see and not see.”

Audience speakers didn’t delve much into the rezoning itself.

They raised concerns that streetcar service would be too limited and cause traffic congestion when launched early next year. The ongoing need for affordable Gateway-area housing was mentioned, as was the importance of providing more than the basics. “We need to build for a growing Oak Cliff,” a speaker said.

Another speaker called for a “complete streets” bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along Beckley Avenue, while another said the street carries too much traffic and “anyone who rides a bike on Beckley is crazy.”

And a speaker asked Griggs why the rezoning had taken so long and so many meetings.

The councilman said a rezoning of Davis Street and Bishop Avenue, approved in 2010, took precedence over the Gateway project. He said the economic downtown and drop in construction led to layoffs and a limiting of the city’s planning staff, which has been restored some with the economic revival.

“You’ve been extremely patient,” Griggs told the crowd. “Now we’ve got the energy and were going to get this across the finish line.”

The city’s time line includes another community meeting on the subject. The plan commission and City Council will have public hearings. Griggs said he hopes to complete the project before the council’s summer recess.

Those ambitious words drew a brief applause from the crowd Tuesday night.

Come on out to Methodist Hospital this evening for a look at (and talk about) a proposed rezoning of the Oak Cliff Gateway area.

We hear the city planning staff will offer a draft ordinance with suggested changes in land-use rules for an area bounded mostly by Beckley, Zang, Davis, Marsalis, Interstate 35E and the Trinity River levee.

See background below.

Proposed sidewalk improvements in the Colorado-Beckley area will also be presented.

The audience can weigh in with questions and comments. City Council member Scott Griggs said similar meetings may follow before the matter goes to the City Plan Commission and council. Griggs said he hopes to complete the rezoning before the council breaks for its summer recess.

Key interests, he said, are protecting residential neighborhoods, supporting commercial development, establishing transition zones and preparing for the streetcar line. All in a mere 750-acre or so area at the heart of North Oak Cliff. Could be interesting and technical.

Griggs also said the work of a task force that spent months studying Gateway zoning is being incorporated in the effort at hand. And he said another such group is not being formed, as was suggested in a recent email from leaders of Methodist Health System. “I don’t know where that came from,” he said. “It’s flat wrong.”

Many people have spent many hours thinking and talking about the Oak Cliff “Gateway.”

In March 2007, the City Plan Commission authorized a public hearing to determine appropriate zoning of the area bounded mostly by Beckley, Zang, Davis, Marsalis, Interstate 35E and the Trinity levee.

The City Council approved a land-use plan for the area in December 2009. And in January 2011, a group of 13 Oak Cliff “stakeholders” appointed by then council members Dave Neumann and Delia Jasso begin meeting to hash out and ideally recommend zoning to complement the vision.

They raised money to hire architect and planner Larry Good, hosted public meetings and, led by Michael Mendoza, provided information on a website. They also focused on a larger area than had been authorized by the plan commission.

For whatever reasons, the initiative languished. Politics? City staffing? But it’s back in play.

The plan commission yesterday authorized another public hearing on the Gateway rezoning, expanding the target area to match that studied by the volunteer group.

David Cossum, the city’s interim director planning and sustainable development, said the rezoning will draw on the group’s work and ideas from community meetings to come with a goal of getting a rezoning recommendation to the plan commission in three months.